The Poetry of Cats

By Edward Lear, Rainer Maria Rilke and Thomas Gray

The cat. Independent when it wants and making us dependent on its whims when it deems. Cats are first thought of as being domesticated in the Near East in about 7500 BC. A few thousand years later in Ancient Egypt they are worshipped as gods. From a domestic cat’s point of view this is pretty much the life they want and that some cats lead right now.

Their larger cousins whether in forest, savannah, mountains or desert were fated for their speed, strength, beauty, feline powers and prowess. They now live in a finely balanced world between freedom and declining numbers as their habitats are destroyed or taken from them.

Across the centuries poets have written verse that captures all manner of thoughts on our complex relationship with all cats, though mainly the humble moggy, on whose whims we slave over, eager for a look of recognition, the nod of thanks or the purr of gratitude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835470558

Book preview

The Poetry of Cats

An Introduction

The cat. Independent when it wants and making us dependent on its whims when it deems.  Cats are first thought of as being domesticated in the Near East in about 7500 BC.  A few thousand years later in Ancient Egypt they are worshipped as gods.  From a domestic cat’s point of view this is pretty much the life they want and that some cats lead right now.  

Their larger cousins whether in forest, savannah, mountains or desert were fated for their speed, strength, beauty, feline powers and prowess.  They now live in a finely balanced world between freedom and declining numbers as their habitats are destroyed or taken from them.

Across the centuries poets have written verse that captures all manner of thoughts on our complex relationship with all cats, though mainly the humble moggy, on whose whims we slave over, eager for a look of recognition, the nod of thanks or the purr of gratitude. 

Index of Contents

The Cat and the Moon by William Butler Yeats

The Cat by Charles Baudelaire

The Lions by Joseph Mary Plunkett

The Owl and the Pussy Cat by Edward Lear

An Appeal to Cats in the Business of Love by Thomas Flatman

To My Cat by Rosamund Marriott Watson

Verses on a Cat by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Milk For the Cat by Harold Munro

The Cats Have Come To Tea by Kate Greenaway

St Jerome's Cat by Anonymous

The Lazy Pussy by Palmer Cox

Sad Memories by Charles Calverly

Mrs Reynold's Cat by John Keats

Mujer by William Carlos Williams

Black Cat by Rainer Maria Rilke

The Cats Will Know by Cesare Pavese

A Cat by Edward Thomas

The Cat of the House by Ford Madox Ford

To Winky by Amy Lowell

The Panther by Rainer Maria Rilke

Jaguar by Lola Ridge

Julbilate Agno by Christopher Smart

Little Tiger by H P Lovecraft

The Tiger by William Blake

Sonnet XIX - Devouring Time, Blunt Thou the Lion's Paws by William Shakespeare

The Lion Who Hunted with the Wolf and the Fox by Rumi

The Eagle, The Sow and the Cat by Anne Kingsmill Finch

The Vain Cat by Ambrose Bierce

To A Cat by Algernon Charles Swinburne

The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat by Eugene Field

How the Feud Started by Arthur Guiterman

The Old Cat and the Young Mouse by Jean De La Fontaine

The Cat and the Old Rat by Jean de la Fontaine

The Rat-Catcher and Cats by John Gay

Two Little Kittens by Anonymous

Familiarity Dangerous by William Cowper

The Kitten and the Falling Leaves by William Wordsworth

The First Cat by Arthur Guiterman

Had Tiberius Been a Cat by Matthew Arnold

An Oxford Don Curses his Cat by Thomas Master

Pangur Ban - The Scholar and His Cat by Anonymous

Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat - Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes by Thomas Gray

On the Death of a Cat by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Epitaph on a Pet Cat by Joachim Du Bellay

Last Words To A Dumb Friend by Thomas Hardy

THE POETRY OF CATS

The Cat and the Moon by William Butler Yeats

The cat went here and there

And the moon spun round like a top,

And the nearest kin of the